A Good Day (except for something I ate): Lectures, Packed Rooms, and Celebrity Chefs

Despite the fact that I ate something that decidedly did not agree with me, yesterday was a very good day. I lectured on current events in US climate policy to Sun Yat-sen University graduate students, and, in the evening, I lectured to a packed house of Chinese nationals (~100 people) at the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China.

As many know, I’ve been doing more work on the relationship between food, law, and the environment. What was also nice about yesterday is I received an email inviting me to be a panelist on the subject of food eco-labeling at the Sustainable Foods Institute. The Institute is part of a three-day series of "Cooking for Solutions" events organized by Monterey Bay Aquarium (an outgrowth of their Seafood Watch Program) that bring together some of North America’s greatest chefs as well as figures in the organic and sustainable foods movement. The event is designed to reach and influence members of the food and environmental media, as well as food industry leaders.

Now while I’m happy to hang with celebrity chefs, eat 5-star cuisine, and meet well-known food authors, I’m mostly thrilled that they invited me because they liked my article on food eco-labeling. Amazing…a draft law review article was actually read by someone outside the legal academy.